Missouri State and Local Open Container Laws
Abstract
In 1998, Congress and the President passed the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which aimed to encourage states to enact and enforce an open container law that prohibits possession of any open alcoholic beverage container and the
consumption of any alcoholic beverage by both the driver and passenger (see Report 29-2005 for more detail). The current Missouri open container law applies only to the driver, making Missouri one of thirteen states (AK, AR, CO, CT, DE, IN, MO, MS, MT, TN, VA, WV, WY) that allow passengers to drink, despite TEA-21. An increasing number of Missouri municipalities, however, are adopting ordinances that apply to the
passenger. Current state legislation, if passed, would override local open container ordinances to allow open wine containers to be transported. This may indicate a possible disconnect between open container law
preference at the local and state levels in Missouri.
Part of
Citation
Roberts, J. (2005). Missouri State and Local Open Container Laws. Report 30-2005. Retrieved 09-24-09 from University of Missouri Columbia, Institute of Public Policy Web site: http://www.truman.missouri.edu/ipp/
Rights
OpenAccess
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.